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NO. 320,890." Patented June 23, 1 885.-'

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APPARATUS FOR HULLING, ASSORTING, AND CLEANSING 0000A BEANS.

Patented Jun 23; 1885.

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APPARATUS FOR HULLING, ASSORTING, AND GLEANSING 0000A BEANS.

No. 320,890. PatentedJune 23, 1885.

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APPARATUS FOR HULLING, ASS'ORTING, AND CLEANSING GOGOABEANSI No. 320,890. PatentedJil-ne 23,1885.

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NTTED STATES PATENT Fries.

HEINRICH STOLLWVEROK, OF COLOGNEQN-THE-RHINE, PRUSSIA, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO GEBR. STOLLWERCK, OF SAME PLACE.

APPARATUS FOR HULLlNG, ASSORTING, AND CLEANSING COCOA-BEANS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,890, dated June 23, 1885.

Application filed February 17, 1&5.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HEINRICH SToLLWEReK, of the city of Gologne-on-the-Rhine, in the Kingdom of Prussia, and German Empire, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Hulling, Assorting, and Cleansing Cocoa-Beans, of which the following is a specification, reference being.

had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

This invention relates to a machine or apparatus for hulling, cleansing, and assorting cocoa-beans or similar products; and its objeet is to reduce, by means of an improved arrangement and combination of feeding, grinding, sifting, blowing, and conveying devices, the cost arising from attending to such machines when in operation, and to prevent, practically, all loss of the sound and valuable parts of the cocoa when the hulls are being separated therefrom.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front view, partly in section, of a machine constructed according to this invention. Figs. 2 and 3 are transverse vertical sections of the same; and Fig. 4' is a transverse horizontal section of the same, showing the arrangement of the ventilators or blowers and their position with regard to the double sieves.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the drawings.

A A A A A indicatea system of blowers fixed upon a common shaft, 2, suitably journaled in the frame of the machine, so that all the blowers will rotate with the same speed. The flies or fans of the several blowers vary in size in order that a different amount of air may be blown out from each of the said blowers to suit different sizes of broken cocoa pieces contained in and sifted through rotary asserting-sieves above.

I) indicates aconveyeremptyinginto a crushing-mill, D, connected with an elevator, E, through another conveyer, e. The said elevator empties into a rocking screen, 0, having three sieves, O G 0 connected, respectively, with three pipes, c c c.

a is a division-plate, arranged somewhat above the upper sieve, G, the ends of the said platebeing partly cut away, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. 0 indicates pipes or conduits No model.)

connecting the upper part of the said screen 0 with the rotary assortingsieves, composed of a number of perforated sections orpipes, B B B B B of sheet metal or other suitable ma terial, fixed in an inclined position upon a common shaft. Two of such rotary sieves are employed in the machine shown in the drawings, the one being mounted upon the shaft 4 and the other upon the shaft 4*. The perforations in the section B are narrower than those in the adjacent section, 13*, those in B wider than those in B, and so on, so that the last section,B, will be provided with the widest.

perforations in each of the said two sieves. The latter are so arranged above the blowers or ventilators A A A A A that the section B having the narrowest openings, will be above the blower A having the smallest and relatively least powerful die; or fans, and so on, so that the section B, having the widest openings, will be above the blower A having the largest and most powerful fans.

d cl indicate conduits connecting the said rotary sieves with the hopper of a pipe, F, emptying into a conveyer, F, connected with a crushing-mill, D, said mill discharging into the said conveyer e likewise.

H H H H H indicate hoppers, arranged, respectively, between the said blowers and sections of the rotary assorting-sieves; and h indicates slides-by means of which the lower discharge-openings of the said hoppers may be closed.

G G2 Gr G G indicate double rocking sieves, arranged below the discharge-openings of the hoppers H H HiH H and in front of the upper ends of the discharge-openings of the blowers A A A A A respectively.

K K K K K indicate trough-shaped receptacles underneath the said double sieves, each of said receptacles allowing of inserting a transverse sliding plate, It, for a purpose hereinafter specified. I

L indicates troughshaped receptacles connected by means of pipes or conduits g with a conveyer, M, discharging into the elevator E.

N indicates a conveyer arranged underneath the receptacles Kto K, which allows of being rotated in either direction by means of the bevel-gears n, n, and a as and for a purpose hereinafter described, thesaid conveyer,;rccording to the direction of its rotation, discharging either into an elevator, O, or into the said elevator E.

I indicates a crank-shaft connected with the said rocking screen by means of a link, f, and with the said double rocking sieves G to G by means of a link, f.

S S indicate slides, provided with the notched handles 8, for controlling the amount of air drawn in from the outside by the said blowers A to A Z indicates a sliding plate, which allows-of being adjusted by means of a set-screw, for closing up more or less area of the open rear part of the frame of the machine.

Motion is imparted to the several working parts of the machine, as follows, that is to say: The shaft 2, carrying the said blowers, is provided with the conical or step-shaped pulley l, driven by any suitable motor, and the shaft 4, carrying one of the said assortingsieves, is provided with the pulley 3 driven by the same or from any other convenient source of power. The shaft 4, by means of sprocket-wheels 5 and 6 and endless chains, imparts motion to the shaft 4*, carrying the other assorting-sieve and the sprocket-wheel 7, the latter, by means of one of the said endless chains rotating the sprocket-wheel 8, fixed upon the conveyer F, the sprocket-wheel 9 on the conveyer N, and the sprocket-wheel 10 on the conveyer M, whence the said chain runs over the intermediate wheel, 11, and back to the wheels 5 and 7.

On the other side of themachine the sprocket-wheel 6, by means of the other of the endless chains, transfers rotatory motion to the sprocket-wheel 12 upon the shaft 13, carrying the said elevator E and the sprocket-wheel 14, the latter transmitting its rotary motion to the sprocket-wheel 15, fitted upon a shaft suitablyjournaled in the frame of the machine and carrying the pulley 16, said pulley, by means of a twisted belt, rotating the pulley 17 on the crank-shaft I. The said shaft I,by means of a twisted belt, imparts rotary motion to' the pulley 18 on the shaft of the crushing-mill D, said shaft carrying another pulley, 19, which, by means of a twisted belt, drives the pulley 20 on the shaft of the crushing-mill D.

A sprocket-wheel fixed upon the end of the crank-shaft I imparts rotary motion to the sprocket-wheels 21 and 22, arranged on the shafts of the conveyers b and e.

The operation of the improved machine for hulling, cleansing, and assorting cocoa-beans or similar materials is as follows, that is to say: The cocoa-beans, in the proper roasted state, are fed into the conveyer b and thus delivered to the crushing-mill D, whence the crushed product by means of the conveyer e, is fed to the elevator E, which discharges the same upon the rocking screen 0, where the said product is sifted into four sizesthat is to say, the finest parts or the dust will pass through all the sieves O (l O and settle on the bottom 0*, whence, by the rocking motion of the said screen, it will enter the pipe 0 while the next finest parts will be retained by the sieve G and the still less fine parts by the sieve O and enter the pipes orconduits c and 0, respectively. The said pipes 0 c, and 0' may discharge into different sacks or other receptacles to collect each size of the siftings separate from the others. The product upon the topmost sieve, G, is shaken around the division or intermediate plate, a, which serves to slacken the movement of the product upon the said sieve O, and to allow the coarse parts of the said product which cannot pass through the meshes of the sieve to rise to the surface and to pass through or under the cut-away ends of the said plate, while all the fine parts will go to the bottom, and be brought in contact with the sifting-surface. By this means all the dust and fine particles contained in the broken product are separated therefrom and educted from the machine before the broken product enters the rotary sieves. The said coarse parts, after being shaken around the plate a, are delivered into the sections B of the said rotary assortingsieves by means of the conduits c, said sections 13 having the narrowest perforations of all the said sections composing the said assorting-sieves, and being arranged above the blower A having the least powerful fans, as hereinbefore set forth. The finest parts of the coarse product entering the rotary sieves will be sifted through the latter, and the remaining part of the said product will pass on into the sections B, arranged above the somewhat less powerful blower A, said sections being provided with openings somewhat wider than those in the preceding sections 13 and allowing the now finest parts of the coarse product to drop out, and so on until the product has passed through the entire length of the rotary sieves, and been assorted in five different sizes, corresponding to the width of the openings in the said five sections. The coarsest parts, which were prevented by their coarseness even from dropping through the wide perforations in the last sections, 13, are discharged by means of the conduits d and the pipe I" into the conveyer F, which may deliver the same either into the crushing-mill D, or, as illustrated in the drawings, into the auxiliary crushing-mill D, where the said parts are crushed for a second time, and then, by being delivered into the elevator E by means of the conveyer 0, will make the same circuit as before described, to undergo another separating process. The siftings of the five distinct sections 13 to B drop into the hoppers H to H respectively, and hence are delivered upon the double rocking sieves G to G respectively. The said sieves are preferably composed of double sifting-sun faces having meshes corresponding in width to the perforations in the sifting-surfaces of the said sections 13 to 13", respectively, with a view to slacken the speed of the siftings in being shaken through the said surfaces, in order that, by thus retarding this part of the sifting process the said siftings may be properly eX- posed to the action of the blowers. Under this action the lighter parts of the hulls will be blown away from the double sieves, while the heavier and sound parts of the cocoa-beans proper will pass through the sifting-meshes and drop into the receptacles K to K, respectivel y, which will thus receive pure cocoa parts free of hulls only.

The power of the air-currents produced by the said blowers is regulated so as to cause the light and pure parts of the hulls to be blown out of the rear part of the machine, while the heavier parts of said hulls with particles of cocoa still adhering thereto, as well as equiponderant particles of cocoa proper, what I may term the intermediate product, are blown into and collected in the funnel-shaped receptacles L, whence, through the conduits 9, they are delivered as intermediate product into the conveyer M, and by means of the latter into the elevator E, to be passed again through the machine and undergo another cleansing process.

From the receptacles K to K the cleansed and assorted product drops into the conveyer N, which will convey the same either in the one direction into the elevator O to deliver it into some suitable storage-room, (not shown in the drawings,) or in the other direction into the elevator E,again to submit it to a renewed cleansing process, the desired rotary direction of the said conveyer N being obtained by allowing the bevel gear a to rotate the bevelgear a upon the shaft of the conveyer N either in a direct manner by means of a clutch, or by means of the intermediate pinion, a", as will be readily understood.

In case of the cleansed product being delivered into the elevator E again, some suitable slide or partition, as shown at in Fig. 2, should be inserted in the several receptacles K to K, in order to retain the recleansed product until the conveyer N has emptied the said receptacles from the product resulting from the first circuit. The rotary direction of the conveyer N being then reversed, as above mentioned, and the slides or partitions taken out of the said receptacles, one after the other it will be seen that the different sizes of the broken, hulled, and cleansed product will be separately discharged from the machine, and thus may readily be obtained and collected in an assorted state, while, on withdrawing the said slides from the said receptacles simultaneously,as may be done in some cases, likewise, the different sizes separated from each other by the recleansing process will be mixed again, and delivered in a mixed state into the storage-room by means of the elevator 0.

It will be seen that by providing for driving the shaft 2 of the blowers by means of the conical or step-shaped pulley 1, any desired velocity may be readily obtained by simply shifting the driving-belt to suit the different kinds'of products and the relation between the weight of the hulls and that of the kernels; but in order to furthermore obtain exactly the proper amount of blast-air for each blower and each size of the broken product, the air-inlet opening of each blower allows of being opened more or less by means of the slides S, so that the sectional area of the sucking-ports maybe varied by the operator at will for each distinct blower. Since the intermediate product blown into the receptacles L allows of being readily inspected by the operator, the latter will always be able to at once control and regulate the power of blastair required from each of the several blowers.

To prevent any particles of the kernels from being blown out of the open rear part of the machine with the hulls, the sliding plate Z may be adj usted more or less high by means of its set-screw, and thus regulate the amount of the intermediate product collected.

I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to employing five blowers and a corresponding number of other working parts mentioned, as it will be seen that any suitable number of such blowers and other parts may be used for obtaining a similar result to that described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent in a machine for hulling, cleansing, and assorting cocoa-beans and similar materials, is

1. The combination of a series of blowers increasing in power from one end to the other of the series, a series of rocking sieves arranged in front of the discharge-openings of said blowers and increasing in the size of their mesh from one end to the other of the series, a series of receptacles located to the rear of said sieves to receive products blown therefrom, and a valve, 6, controlling an opening at the rear of said receptacles, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a rotary assortingsieve composed of a series of sections having perforations graduallyinereasing in size from one end of the series to the other, a series of blowers increasing in power from end to end of the series, a series of rocking sieves arranged between said blowers and rotary assortingsieve in front of the discharge-openings of said blowers, a series of receptacles located to the rear of said sieves to receive products blown therefrom, and a valve, 6, controlling an opening at the rear of said receptacles, substantially as described.

3. The combination of arotary assortingsieve composed of a series of sections having perforations gradually increasing in size from end to end of the series, a rocking screen composed of a series of finely-perforated sieves arranged one above the other, and a conduit leading from the topmost sieve of the rocking screen into the rotary sieve, substantially as described.

4. The combination of a rotary assortingsieve composed of a series of sections having I screen, a series of blowers beneath said hoppers of increasing power from end" to end of 20 perforations increasing in size from end to end of the series, a rocking screen composed of a series of finely-perforated sieves arranged one above the other, a divider suspended above the top sieve of the rocking screen, and having its lower portion cut away adjacent to its ends, and a conduit leadingfrom said top sieve into the rotary sieve, substantially as described.

5. An apparatus for hulling, assorting, and cleaning cocoa, comprising a grinding-mill, a rocking sieve, a conveyer connecting said mill and sieve, a rotary sieve composed of a series of sections having perforations increasing in size from end to end, a conduit connecting the rocking screen therewith, a series of hoppers located beneath the sections of the rotary the series, and having adjusting-slides S, a series of rocking sieves in front of the openings to'the blowers, a series of receptacles to the rear of said last sieve, having valve-controlled openings, trough-receptacles underneath said sieves and blowers, inclined slides in said trough-receptacles, and a conveyer for said receptacles, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HEINRICH STOLLWERGK.

Witnesses:

SAMUEL SPAOKMAN, TH. PEITMANN. 

